THE Commons defence committee’s call for a larger army ignores Britain’s already bloated military budget and makes war more likely, peace campaigners warned today.

The committee’s Ready for War? report complained that more people are leaving than joining the army, meaning it is unready for a “high-intensity war.”

It follows Defence Secretary Grant Shapps’s claim that we are in a “pre-war” era and may soon be in direct conflict with world powers including Russia and China, and army chief General Sir Patrick Sanders’s push for a return to conscription.

But Peace Pledge Union activist Symon Hill warned that a cycle of increased military spending had been a cause of the first world war.

“If you prepare for war, you’re likely to get [it],” he told the Morning Star. Britain “already has the fourth highest military spending in the world.”

It was good more people were leaving than joining the army, he added: “The British army ... are desperately targeting working-class young people struggling with poverty and unemployment. 

“But most young people can see what the generals and politicians seem unwilling to accept: we can’t solve deep-rooted problems with bombs. Most young people don’t want to sign up for a life of violence and unquestioning obedience. Good for them!”

Stop the War Coalition convener Lindsey German said the need for higher arms spending was a “constant refrain from the new generation of Colonel Blimps.

“People don’t want to join or stay in the army for good reasons — they don’t want militarism and war. Real security means housing, health, education — not arming against supposed threats which are frankly ridiculous.”